James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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141. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport the position regarding driving tests needed for rigid and artic driving licences; the position regarding these protocols; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [44717/21]

Hildegarde Naughton (Galway West, Fine Gael)
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Covid 19 has had a profound effect on the delivery of the driving testing services operated by the Road Safety Authority (RSA).

Throughout the restrictions and lockdowns, CPC practical driving tests (Certificate of Professional Competence practical tests for trucks and artics) were considered to fall into the ‘Essential Worker’ category and, other than the initial lockdown in March 2020, applicants seeking a test in this category have continued to be invited to sit their driving test.

My Department is liaising with the RSA on an ongoing basis to meet the growing demand for tests. An additional 40 temporary driver testers have been authorised along with 36 approved for retention or rehire in 2020. These testers have been recruited and trained and commenced testing in July.

In addition, sanction was granted at the end of June to add a further 40 testers to the cohort.

The Road Safety Authority have pointed out that many driver testers who can carry out a CPC practical driving test would be designated as trainers and spare testers. Therefore, where there is any training of new recruits, this pulls from the available resources for HGV tests.

The Road Safety Authority is looking to increase the number of tests from 6 to 7 per tester per day from the end of September as well as extending operating hours and expanding facilities at existing centres or opening new centres where appropriate.

Assuming a successful return to 7 tests per tester per day, the capacity of the system will be 4,881 tests per week. The RSA measure test slots as car test slots and will be assigning 7 car test slots a day to a total of 4,881 in the near future. However, truck tests take longer, so while there will be an equivalent of 4,881 car tests available, this does not mean that 4,881 actual tests will happen. There will be some truck tests plus some car and motorbike tests but the total being done will be under 4,881 due to the longer time required for truck tests.

There is a slower take up of invitations from customers seeking a test in this category. Many applicants on the waiting list have already received an invite and chosen not to use it. Further research carried out by the RSA, at the request of my department, showed that the by far the most common reason cited by customers for not taking up their test invitation (47%) was that they were ‘not ready’.

Every possible measure is being put in place to ensure that the maximum number of customers can be served while complying with public health guidance.

There is now real progress to be seen in the increase in capacity in the service. However, we have also to be aware that as services reopen there will be an increase in applications, so we cannot expect backlogs to disappear quickly.